KR101434862B1 - Method and apparatus to facilitate voice activity detection and coexistence manager decisions - Google Patents

Abstract

There is provided a system and method for facilitating voice activity detection and coexistence manager decisions, the method comprising: identifying a connection using a first resource and a content stream corresponding to the connection, wherein the first resource comprises a second resource, Crashes. The content of the content stream is classified into a plurality of levels based on the value of the content, and thereafter, the priority is assigned to the first and second resources based on the level of the content of the first resource.

Description

[0001] METHOD AND APPARATUS TO FACILITATE VOICE ACTIVITY DETECTION AND COEXISTENCE MANAGER DECISIONS [0002]

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61 / 319,095 entitled " METHOD AND APPARATUS TO FACILITATE VOICE ACTIVITY DETECTION AND COEXISTENCE MANAGER DECISIONS " filed on March 30, 2010, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference Explicitly incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates generally to multi-radio technologies, and more particularly to coexistence techniques for multi-radio devices.

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, data, and so on. These systems may be multi-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth and transmit power). Examples of such multiple access systems include Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) systems, Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) systems, Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) Division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.

In general, a wireless multiple-access communication system may simultaneously support communication for multiple wireless terminals. Each terminal communicates with one or more base stations via transmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from the terminals to the base stations. Such a communication link may be established through a single-input-single-output, multiple-input-single-output or multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) system.

Some conventional advanced devices include multiple radios for transmitting / receiving using different radio access technologies (RATs). Examples of RATs include, for example, Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Universal System for Mobile Communications (GSM), CDMA2000, WiMAX, WLAN (e.g. WiFi), Bluetooth, LTE and the like.

An exemplary mobile device is an LTE user equipment (UE) such as a fourth generation (4G) mobile phone. Such a 4G phone may include various radios to provide various functions for the user. For purposes of this illustration, a 4G phone includes an LTE radio for voice and data, an IEEE 802.11 (WiFi) radio, a GPS (Global Positioning System) radio and a Bluetooth radio, where two or all of the four radios Four radios can operate simultaneously. While different radios provide useful functions for telephones, inclusion into a single device generates coexistence issues. In particular, the operation of one radio may interfere with the operation of another radio through radioactive, conductive, resource conflicts and / or other interference mechanisms in some cases. Coexistence issues include such interference.

This is particularly true for the LTE uplink channel, where the LTE uplink channel is adjacent to and may cause interference with the Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band. It is noted that Bluetooth and some wireless LAN (WLAN) channels are included within the ISM band. In some cases, the Bluetooth error rate may become unacceptable when LTE is active on some channels of band 7 or even band 40 for some Bluetooth channel conditions. Even if there is no significant degradation to LTE, simultaneous operation with Bluetooth can cause disturbances in voice services that terminate at the Bluetooth headset. Such an obstruction may not be acceptable to the consumer. Similar issues exist when LTE transmissions interfere with GPS. Currently, there is no mechanism to address this issue since LTE does not experience any quality degradation on its own.

Referring specifically to LTE, it is noted that the UE communicates with an evolved Node B (eNB; e.g., a base station for a wireless communication network) to notify the eNB of the interference observed by the UE on the downlink. Moreover, the eNB can estimate the interference at the UE using the downlink error rate. In some cases, the eNB and the UE may cooperate to find a solution to reduce interference at the UE, or even interference due to radios within the UE itself. However, in conventional LTE, the interference estimates for the downlink may not be suitable to solve the interference extensively.

In some cases, the LTE uplink signal interferes with a Bluetooth signal or a wireless local area network (WLAN) signal. However, such interference is not reflected in downlink measurement reports at the eNB. As a result, the unilateral action of the UE side (e.g., moving the uplink signal to another channel) may be prevented by the eNB, and the eNB does not recognize the uplink coexistence issue and attempts to invalidate the one- do. For example, even if the UE re-establishes a connection on another frequency channel, the network may still handover the UE back to the original frequency channel that was corrupted by intra-device interference. This is a possible scenario because the desired signal strength on the impaired channel may sometimes be higher than reflected in the measurement reports of the new channel to the eNB based on the reference signal received power (RSRP). Therefore, a ping-pong effect may occur where the eNB uses the RSRP reports for handover decisions, moving back and forth between the corrupted channel and the desired channel.

Other unilateral operations on the UE side, such as simply stopping uplink communications without adjustment of the eNB, may cause power loop failures in the eNB. Additional issues existing in conventional LTE include the general lack of capability of the UE side to suggest the desired configurations as alternatives to configurations with coexistence issues. For at least these reasons, the uplink coexistence issues at the UE may remain unresolved over time and degrade the UE's performance and efficiency for other radios.

One embodiment includes initiating a system for wireless communication and identifying a content stream corresponding to a connection and a connection using the first resource, wherein the first resource conflicts with the second resource. The content of the content stream is classified into a plurality of levels based on the value of the content, and thereafter, a priority is assigned to the first and second resources based on the level of the content of the first resource.

Another embodiment discloses a system for wireless communication and includes means for identifying a content stream corresponding to a connection and a connection using a first resource. The first resource conflicts with the second resource. The classification means classifies the content of the content stream into a plurality of levels based on the value of the content. The allocating means allocates the priority to the first and second resources based on the level of the content of the first resource.

In another embodiment, a computer program product for wireless communications in a wireless network includes a computer-readable medium having recorded program code thereon. The program code includes program code for identifying a content stream corresponding to a connection and a connection using the first resource, wherein the first resource conflicts with the second resource. The program code is included to classify the content of the content stream into a plurality of levels based on the value of the content. In addition, the program code assigns a priority to the first and second resources based on the level of the content of the first resource.

Another embodiment discloses an apparatus for wireless communication and includes at least one processor coupled to a memory and a memory. The processor is configured to identify a content stream corresponding to a connection and connection using the first resource, wherein the first resource conflicts with the second resource. The processor classifies the content of the content stream into a plurality of levels based on the value of the content, and then assigns priority to the first and second resources based on the level of the content of the first resource.

Additional features and advantages of the disclosure will be described below. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present disclosure can readily be used as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of this disclosure. It should also be appreciated by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the teachings of the disclosure as set forth in the appended claims. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The novel features believed to be characteristic of the disclosure will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, both as to organization and method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages . It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purposes of illustration and description only and is not intended to define the limitations of the disclosure.

The nature, nature and advantages of the disclosure will become more apparent from the detailed description set forth below when considered in conjunction with the drawings in which like reference characters are correspondingly generally identified.

1 illustrates a multiple access wireless communication system in accordance with an aspect.
2 is a block diagram of a communication system in accordance with an aspect.
3 illustrates an exemplary frame structure in downlink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications.
4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary frame structure in uplink Long Term Evolution (LTE) communications.
5 illustrates an exemplary wireless communication environment.
6 is a block diagram of an exemplary design for a multi-radio wireless device.
7 is a graph showing each potential conflict between the seven exemplary radios in a determined period of time.
Fig. 8 is a diagram showing the operation of an exemplary coexistence manager CxM over time.
9 is a block diagram of a system for providing support for multi-radio coexistence management in a wireless communication environment in accordance with an aspect.
10-11 illustrate exemplary resource access scenarios according to various aspects.
12 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary process for facilitating voice activity detection in accordance with an aspect.

Various aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for mitigating coexistence issues in multi-radio devices, where, for example, LTE and Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) band (e.g., for Bluetooth / WLAN) There may be considerable device-to-device coexistence problems between them. As noted above, some coexistence issues continue because the eNB does not recognize the UE side interference experienced by other radios. According to an aspect, the UE declares a radio link failure (RLF) and autonomously accesses a new channel or radio access technology (RAT) if there is a coexistence issue on the current channel. The UE may declare RLF in some instances for the following reasons: 1) UE reception is affected by interference due to coexistence, and 2) UE transmitter causes interference that interferes with other radios. The UE then sends a message to the eNB indicating the coexistence issue, resetting the connection on the new channel or RAT. The eNB will recognize the coexistence issue by receiving the message.

The techniques described herein may be used in various wireless communication systems, such as code division multiple access (CDMA) networks, time division multiple access (TDMA) networks, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) networks, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) FDMA) networks, and the like. The terms "networks" and "systems" are often used interchangeably. CDMA networks can implement radio technologies such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), CDMA2000, and the like. UTRA includes wideband-CDMA (W-CDMA) and low-rate chip rate (LCR). CDMA2000 covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. The TDMA network may implement radio technology such as General Purpose System (GSM) for mobile communications. OFDMA networks can implement radio technologies such as evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMDM, UTRA, E-UTRA and GSM are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Long Term Evolution (LTE) is the next generation release of UMTS using E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, GSM, UMTS and LTE are described in documents from the organization named "3rd Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). CDMA2000 is described in documents from the organization entitled " 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 "(3GPP2). These various radio technologies and standards are known in the art. For clarity, certain aspects of the techniques are described below for LTE and LTE terminology is used in portions of the following description.

Single carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) using single carrier modulation and frequency domain equalization is a technique that can be used with the various aspects described herein. SC-FDMA has similar performance and essentially the same overall complexity as an OFDMA system. The SC-FDMA signal has a lower peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) due to its inherent single carrier structure. SC-FDMA has received particularly great attention in uplink communications where the lower PAPR makes the mobile terminal very beneficial in terms of transmit power efficiency. SC-FDMA is currently an operational assumption for the uplink multiple access scheme in 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) or evolved UTRA.

Referring to Figure 1, a multiple access wireless communication system in accordance with an aspect is illustrated. The evolved Node B 100 (eNB) may be a computer having processing resources and memory resources to manage LTE communications, such as by allocating resources and parameters, and / or allowing / denying requests from user equipment 115). eNB 100 also includes an antenna 104 and an antenna 106 and another group includes an antenna 108 and an antenna 110 and an additional group includes an antenna 112 and an antenna 114, Lt; / RTI > In Figure 1, although only two antennas are shown for each antenna group, more or fewer antennas may be used for each antenna group. A user equipment (UE) 116 (also referred to as an access terminal (AT)) communicates with antennas 112 and 114 while antennas 112 and 114 communicate via an uplink (UL) 188 And transmits information to the UE 116. [ UE 122 communicates with antennas 106 and 108 while antennas 106 and 108 transmit information to UE 122 over downlink (DL) 126 and transmit uplink 124 RTI ID = 0.0 > UE 122 < / RTI > In the FDD system, the communication links 118, 120, 124, and 126 utilize different frequencies for communication. For example, the downlink 120 may utilize a different frequency than that used by the uplink 118.

The area in which each group of antennas and / or the antennas are designed to communicate is often referred to as the sector of the eNB. In this aspect, each of the antenna groups is designed to communicate with the UEs in the sector of the areas covered by the eNB 100.

In communications over downlinks 120 and 126, the transmit antennas of eNB 100 utilize beamforming to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of the uplinks to the different UEs 116 and 122. Also, an eNB that uses beamforming to transmit to UEs that are randomly scattered through its coverage may be less likely to interfere with UEs in neighboring cells than the UE may transmit to all its UEs via a single antenna .

An eNB may be a fixed station used for communicating with terminals and may also be referred to as an access point, base station, or some other terminology. The UE may also be referred to as an access terminal, a wireless communication device, a terminal, or some other terminology.

2 is a block diagram of an aspect of a transmitter system 210 (also known as an eNB) and a receiver system 250 (also known as UE) in a MIMO system 200. [ In some cases, both the UE and the eNB have transceivers that include a transmitter system and a receiver system, respectively. At the transmitter system 210, traffic data for a number of data streams is provided from a data source 212 to a transmit (TX) data processor 214.

A MIMO system uses multiple (NT) transmit antennas and multiple (NR) receive antennas for data transmission. The MIMO channel formed by the NT transmit and NR receive antennas may be decomposed into NS independent channels, where the NS independent channels are referred to as spatial channels, where NS < min {NT, NR}. Each of the NS independent channels corresponds to one dimension. A MIMO system may provide improved performance (e.g., higher throughput and / or greater reliability) when additional dimensions generated by multiple transmit and receive antennas are utilized.

MIMO systems support Time Division Duplex (TDD) and Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) systems. In a TDD system, uplink and downlink transmissions are performed on the same frequency domain, such that the reciprocity principle allows estimation of the downlink channel from the uplink channel. This allows the eNB to extract the transmit beamforming gain on the downlink when multiple antennas are available at the eNB.

In an aspect, each data stream is transmitted over a respective transmit antenna. The TX data processor 214 formats, codes, and interleaves the traffic data for each data stream based on a particular coding scheme selected for each data stream to provide the coding data.

The coded data for each data stream may be multiplexed into pilot data using OFDM techniques. The pilot data is a known data pattern that is processed in a known manner and can be used in the receiver system to estimate the channel response. Thereafter, a multiplexed pilot for each data stream based on a particular modulation scheme (e.g., BPSK, QPSK, M-PSK, or M-QAM) selected for each data stream to provide modulation symbols and Coding data is modulated (e.g., symbol-mapped). The data rate, coding, and modulation for each data stream may be determined by instructions performed by the processor 230 operating with the memory 232.

Thereafter, modulation symbols for each data stream are provided to a TX MIMO processor 220, which can further process the modulation symbols (e.g., for OFDM). TX MIMO processor 220 then provides NT modulation symbol streams to NT transmitters (TMTR) 222a through 222t. In certain aspects, the TX MIMO processor 220 applies beamforming weights to the symbols of the data streams and to the antenna that transmits the symbols.

Each transmitter 222 receives and processes a respective symbol stream to provide one or more analog signals, and further conditions (e.g., adjusts) the analog signals to provide a suitable modulation signal for transmission over the MIMO channel. Amplification, filtering, and up conversion). NT modulated signals from transmitters 222a through 222t are then transmitted from each of NT antennas 224a through 224t.

In the receiver system 250, the transmitted modulated signals are received by NR antennas 252a through 252r and the received signal from each antenna 252 is provided to a respective receiver (RCVR) 254a through 254r. Each receiver 254 is configured to adjust (e.g., filter, amplify, and downconvert) each received signal, digitize the conditioned signal to provide samples, and provide a corresponding " Further processing the samples.

RX data processor 260 then receives and processes NR received symbol streams from NR receivers 254 based on a particular receiver processing technique to provide NR "detected" symbol streams. The RX data processor 260 then demodulates, deinterleaves, and decodes each detected symbol stream to recover traffic data for the data stream. The processing by RX data processor 260 is complementary to the processing performed by TX MIMO processor 220 and TX data processor 214 at transmitter system 210. [

The processor 270 (operating with memory 272) periodically determines which pre-coding matrix to use (discussed below). Processor 270 forms an uplink message with a matrix index portion and a rank value portion.

The uplink message may include various types of information regarding the received data stream and / or the communication link. The uplink message is then processed by a TX data processor 238 and the TX data processor 238 also receives traffic data for multiple data streams from a data source 236 and is processed by a modulator 280 Modulated, adjusted by transmitters 254a through 254r, and transmitted back to transmitter system 210.

In the transmitter system 210, the modulation signals from the receiver system 250 are received by the antennas 224 to extract the uplink message transmitted by the receiver system 250, Adjusted, demodulated by demodulator 240, and processed by RX data processor 242. The processor 230 then determines which pre-coding matrix to use to determine the beamforming weights, and then processes the extracted message.

3 shows a downlink FDD frame structure used for LTE / -A. The transmission timeline for the downlink may be divided into units of radio frames. Each radio frame may have a predetermined duration (e.g., 10 milliseconds (ms)) and may be divided into 10 subframes with indices of 0 to 9. Each subframe may include two slots. Each radio frame may thus comprise 20 slots with indices of 0 to 19. Each slot may comprise L symbol periods, for example, 14 symbol periods for an extended periodic prefix, or 7 symbol periods (as shown in FIG. 3) for a regular periodic prefix. The 2L symbol periods in each subframe may be assigned indices of 0 to 2L-1. The available time frequency resources may be divided into resource blocks. Each resource block may cover N subcarriers (e.g., 12 subcarriers) in one slot.

In LTE / -A, the eNodeB may send a primary synchronization signal (PSC or PSS) and a secondary synchronization signal (SSC or SSS) for each cell at the eNodeB. For the FDD mode of operation, the primary and secondary synchronization signals can be transmitted in symbol periods 6 and 5, respectively, in subframes 0 and 5 of each radio frame with a regular periodic prefix, as shown in FIG. 3 have. The synchronization signals may be used by the UEs for cell detection and acquisition. For the FDD mode of operation, the eNodeB may transmit a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) in symbol periods 0 to 3 in slot 1 of subframe 0. The PBCH can carry specific system information.

The eNodeB may transmit the Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH) in the first symbol period of each subframe, as shown in FIG. The PCFICH may carry the number of symbol periods (M) used for the control channels, where M may be equal to 1, 2 or 3 and may vary from subframe to subframe. M may also be equal to 4, for example, for small system bandwidth with fewer than 10 resource blocks. In the example shown in Fig. 3, M = 3. The eNodeB may transmit a physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) and a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) in the first M symbol periods of each subframe. PDCCH and PHICH are also included in the first three symbol periods in the example shown in FIG. The PHICH may return information to support hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ). The PDCCH may carry information about uplink and downlink resource allocation for UEs and power control information for uplink channels. The eNodeB may transmit a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) in the remaining symbol periods of each subframe. The PDSCH may carry data for UEs scheduled for data transmission on the downlink.

The eNodeB may transmit the PSC, SSC and PBCH at the center 1.08 MHz of the system bandwidth used by the eNodeB. The eNodeB can transmit PCFICH and PHICH over the entire system bandwidth in each symbol period over which these channels are transmitted. The eNodeB may send the PDCCH to groups of UEs in specific parts of the system bandwidth. The eNodeB may send the PDSCH to specific UEs in certain parts of the system bandwidth. The eNodeB can transmit PSC, SSC, PBCH, PCFICH, and PHICH to all UEs in a broadcasting scheme, transmit PDCCH to specific UEs in a unicast manner, and transmit PDSCH to specific UEs in a unicast manner Can be transmitted.

Multiple resource elements may be available in each symbol period. Each resource element may cover one subcarrier in one symbol period and may be used to transmit one modulation symbol, which may be a real or a complex value. For symbols used for control channels, resource elements that are not used for a reference signal in each symbol period may be arranged into resource element groups (REGs). Each REG may contain four resource elements in one symbol period. The PCFICH may occupy four REGs, which may be spaced approximately equally across the frequency in symbol period zero. The PHICH may occupy three REGs, which may be spread over frequency, in one or more configurable symbol periods. For example, all three REGs for PHICH may belong to symbol period 0 or may be spread in symbol periods 0, 1 and 2. The PDCCH may occupy 9, 18, 36 or 72 REGs, which may be selected from the available REGs in the first M symbol periods. Only certain combinations of REGs may be allowed for the PDCCH.

The UE may know the specific REGs used for PHICH and PCFICH. The UE may search for different combinations of REGs for the PDCCH. The number of combinations to be searched is typically less than the number of combinations allowed for the PDCCH. The eNodeB may send the PDCCH to the UE in any combination of combinations the UE will search.

4 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exemplary frame structure 400 in uplink long term evolution (LTE) communications. The resource blocks (RBs) available for the uplink can be divided into a data section and a control section. The control section may be formed at two edges of the system bandwidth and may have a configurable size. The resource blocks in the control section may be assigned to the UEs for transmission of control information. The data section may include all resource blocks not included in the control section. The design in FIG. 4 generates a data section containing adjacent subcarriers, which may allow a single UE to be allocated all of the adjacent subcarriers in the data section.

The UE may be allocated resource blocks of the control section to transmit control information to the eNB. The UE may also be allocated resource blocks of a data section to transmit data to the eNodeB. The UE may transmit control information on the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) on the allocated resource blocks of the control section. The UE may transmit only data or both data and control information on the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) on the allocated resource blocks of the data section. The uplink transmission may span two slots of the subframe and may hop across the frequency as shown in FIG.

PSS, SSS, CRS, PBCH, PUCCH and PUSCH in LTE are described in 3GPP TS 36.211, which is publicly available "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation. &Quot;

In an aspect, systems and methods for providing support to facilitate multi-radio coexistence solutions in a wireless communication environment such as a 3GPP LTE environment are described herein.

Referring now to FIG. 5, an exemplary wireless communication environment 500 is shown in which various aspects described herein may function. The wireless communication environment 500 may include a wireless device 510 capable of communicating with a plurality of communication systems. These systems may include, for example, one or more cellular systems 520 and / or 530, one or more WLAN systems 540 and / or 550, one or more wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) systems One or more satellite positioning systems 560, one or more broadcast systems 570, one or more satellite positioning systems 580, other systems not shown in FIG. 5, or any combination thereof. In the following description, it is to be appreciated that the terms "network" and "system" are often used interchangeably.

Cellular systems 520 and 530 may each be CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, single carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA), or other suitable system. A CDMA system may implement radio technologies such as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), CDMA2000, and the like. UTRA includes wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. Moreover, CDMA2000 covers IS-2000 (CDMA2000 1X), IS-95 and IS-856 (HRPD) standards. TDMA systems can implement radio technologies such as General Purpose Systems (GSM) for mobile communications, Digital Advanced Mobile Phone Systems (D-AMPS), and the like. OFDMA systems can implement radio technologies such as evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), ultra mobile broadband (UMB), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMDM. UTRA and E-UTRA are part of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are new releases of UMTS using E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described in documents from the organization named "Third Generation Partnership Project" (3GPP). CDMA2000 and UMB are described in documents from the organization entitled " 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 "(3GPP2). In an aspect, cellular system 520 includes a plurality of base stations 522, which may be capable of supporting two-way communication with wireless devices within its coverage. Similarly, the cellular system 530 may include multiple base stations 532, which may support bi-directional communication for wireless devices within its coverage.

WLAN systems 540 and 550 may each implement radio technologies such as IEEE 802.11 (WiFi), hyperlinks, and the like. WLAN system 540 may include one or more access points 542 that may support bi-directional communication. Similarly, WLAN system 550 may include one or more access points 552 that may support bi-directional communication. The WPAN system 560 may implement radio technologies such as Bluetooth (BT), IEEE 802.15, and the like. The WPAN system 560 may also support bidirectional communication for various devices such as the wireless device 510, the headset 562, the computer 564, the mouse 566, and the like.

The broadcasting system 570 may be a TV broadcasting system, a frequency modulation (FM) broadcasting system, a digital broadcasting system, or the like. Digital broadcasting systems can implement radio technologies such as MediaFLO (TM), Digital Video Broadcasting Handheld (DVB-H), and Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting for Terrestrial Television Broadcasting (ISDB-T). Furthermore, broadcast system 570 may include one or more broadcast stations 572 that may support one-way communication.

The satellite positioning system 580 may be implemented in a variety of systems such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States, the Galileo system of Europe, the GLONASS system of Russia, the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System of Japan (QZSS), the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System ), China's Beidou system, and / or any other suitable system. Moreover, the satellite positioning system 580 may include a plurality of satellites 582 that transmit signals for positioning.

In an aspect, the wireless device 510 may be stationary or mobile and may also be referred to as a user equipment (UE), mobile station, mobile equipment, terminal, access terminal, subscriber unit, station, The wireless device 510 may be a cellular telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem, a portable device, a laptop computer, a cordless telephone, a wireless local loop (WLL) In addition, the wireless device 510 may communicate with the cellular system 520 and / or 530, the WLAN system 540 and / or 550, the devices with the WPAN system 560 and / or any other suitable system (s) / RTI > and / or < / RTI > bidirectional communication with the device (s). Wireless device 510 may additionally or alternatively receive signals from broadcast system 570 and / or satellite positioning system 580. In general, it can be appreciated that the wireless device 510 can communicate with any number of systems at any given moment. In addition, the wireless device 510 may experience coexistence issues among the various devices of its constituent radio devices operating concurrently. Accordingly, the device 510 includes a coexistence manager (CxM, not shown) having functional modules for detecting and mitigating coexistence issues, as described further below.

Referring now to FIG. 6, there is provided a block diagram that illustrates an exemplary design for a multi-radio wireless device 600 and that may be utilized as an implementation of the radio 510 of FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, the wireless device 600 may include N radios 620a through 620n, which may be coupled to each of the N antennas 610a through 610n, where N May be any integer value. It should be appreciated, however, that each of the radios 620 may be coupled to any number of antennas 610 and that a plurality of radios 620 may also share a given antenna 610.

In general, the radio 620 may be a unit that emits or emits energy in the electromagnetic spectrum, receives energy in the electromagnetic spectrum, or generates energy that propagates through the conductive means. By way of example, the radio 620 may be a system or a unit that receives signals from a device or a unit that transmits a signal to a device or unit. Thus, it can be appreciated that the radio 620 may be used to support wireless communication. In another example, the radio 620 may also be a unit that emits noise (e.g., a screen on a computer, a circuit board, etc.) that may affect the performance of other radios. Thus, it is further understood that the radio 620 may also be a unit that emits noise and interference without supporting wireless communication.

In an aspect, each of the radios 620 may support communication with one or more systems. The plurality of radios 620 may be used, for example, for systems that are additionally or alternatively determined to transmit or receive on different frequency bands (e.g., cellular and PCS bands).

In another aspect, the digital processor 630 may be coupled to the radios 620a through 620n and may perform various functions, such as processing for data transmitted or received via the radios 620. [ The processing for each radio 620 may depend on the radio technology supported by the radio and may include encryption, encoding, modulation, etc., for the transmitter; Demodulation, decoding, decoding, etc., for the receiver. In one example, the digital processor 630 may include a CxM 640 that can control the operation of the radios 620 to improve the performance of the wireless device 600 as generally described herein . The CxM 640 may access the database 644 and the database 644 may store information used to control the operation of the radios 620. [ As described further below, CxM 640 may be adapted for various techniques to reduce interference between radios. In one example, CxM 640 requires a measurement gap pattern or DRX cycle that allows ISM radios to communicate during periods of LTE inactivity.

For simplicity, the digital processor 630 is shown in FIG. 6 as a single processor. However, it should be appreciated that the digital processor 630 may include any number of processors, controllers, memories, and the like. In one example, the controller / processor 650 can direct the operation of various units within the wireless device 600. Additionally or alternatively, the memory 652 may store program codes and data for the wireless device 600. The digital processor 630, controller / processor 650 and memory 652 may be implemented on one or more integrated circuits (ICs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), and the like. As a specific, non-limiting example, the digital processor 630 may be implemented on a mobile station modem (MSM) ASIC.

In an aspect, CxM 640 may be coupled to each of the radios 620 used by wireless device 600 to avoid interference and / or other performance degradation associated with collisions between respective radios 620 The operation can be managed. The CxM 640 may perform one or more processes. As a further illustration, graph 700 of FIG. 7 shows each potential conflict between the seven exemplary radios in a determined period of time. In the example shown in graph 700, the seven radios include a WLAN transmitter Tw, an LTE transmitter Tl, an FM transmitter Tf, a GSM / WCDMA transmitter Tc / Tw, an LTE receiver Rl, (Rb) and a GPS receiver (Rg). The four transmitters are represented by the four nodes on the left hand side of the graph 700. The three receivers are represented by the three nodes on the right hand side of the graph 700.

A potential conflict between the transmitter and the receiver appears on the graph 700 by a branch connecting the node to the transmitter and the node to the receiver. Thus, in the example shown in graph 700, collisions are (1) between the WLAN transmitter Tw and the Bluetooth receiver Rb; (2) between the LTE transmitter Tl and the Bluetooth receiver Rb; (3) between the WLAN transmitter Tw and the LTE receiver Rl; (4) between the FM transmitter (Tf) and the GPS receiver (Rg); (5) WLAN transmitter (Tw), GSM / WCDMA transmitter (Tc / Tw) and GPS receiver (Rg).

In an aspect, exemplary CxM 640 may operate in time in the manner illustrated by drawing 800 in FIG. As shown in the diagram 800, the timeline for CxM operation can be divided into decision units DUs, and decision units DUs can be any suitable uniform or non-uniform length (e.g., Where the notifications are processed and the commands are provided to the various radios 620 and / or based on the actions performed in the evaluation phase, in the response phase (e.g., 20 占 퐏) Other operations are performed. In one example, the timeline shown in the diagram 800 is based on the timing of the response in the event that a notification is obtained from the radio set predetermined immediately after the end of the worst case operation of the timeline, e.g., And may have a delay parameter defined.

Device coexistence problems may exist for the UE between resources such as, for example, LTE and ISM bands (e.g., for Bluetooth / WLAN). In current LTE implementations, any interfering issues for LTE may be used by the eNB to make inter-frequency or inter-RAT handoff decisions, for example, to move LTE to a channel or RAT that has no coexistent issues The downlink error rate and / or the downlink measurements reported by the UE (e.g., reference signal reception quality (RSRQ) metrics, etc.). However, it can be appreciated that, for example, LTE uplinks cause interference to Bluetooth / WLANs but that these existing techniques will not work if the LTE downlink experiences no interference from Bluetooth / WLAN. More specifically, even if the UE autonomously moves to another channel on the uplink itself, the eNB may handover the UE back to the failed channel for load balancing purposes in some cases. However, it can be appreciated that existing techniques do not facilitate bandwidth utilization of the problematic channel in the most efficient manner.

Referring now to FIG. 9, a block diagram of a system 900 for providing support for multi-radio coexistence management in a wireless communication environment is shown. In an aspect, system 900 may include one or more UEs 910 and / or eNBs 930, which may be coupled to one another in uplink, downlink, and / Or any other entity of the system 900. [ In one example, the UE 910 and / or the eNB 930 may be operable to communicate using a variety of resources including frequency channels and subbands, some of which may potentially include other radio resources (e.g., , Bluetooth radio). Thus, the UE 910 can generally utilize various techniques for managing coexistence between multiple radios of the UE 910 as described herein.

To mitigate at least these disadvantages, the UE 910 may be configured to facilitate support for multi-radio coexistence within the UE 910, including facilitating prioritization of network traffic in accordance with detected voice activity Each of the features described herein and illustrated by system 900 may be utilized. The UE 910 may include a channel monitoring module 912, a channel coexistence analyzer 914, a voice activity detection (VAD) module 916, and a priority assignment module 918. The various modules 912-918 may, in some instances, be implemented as part of a coexistence manager, such as CxM 640 in FIG. In one embodiment, CxM 640 utilizes modules 912-918 to manage coexistence between resources, such as radios 620. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the CxM can manage any number of radios.

In one embodiment, the radios 620 may facilitate audio connections such as voice calls or other similar types of connections and / or otherwise associated with audio connections. In one example, the plurality of radios 620 may be one or more of audio (e.g., LTE, GSM, CDMA2000, etc.), Bluetooth, WLAN, and / Lt; / RTI > connection. Thus, in order to manage coexistence between the radio 620 in the context of an audio connection, the CxM 640 determines the periods of inactivity (e.g., silence) and / or activity in the audio stream associated with the connection A voice activity detection (VAD) module 916 may be used. Although module 916 is referred to as a "voice activity detection" module, it can detect more voices and also detect periods of silence (or no activity). In particular, in one embodiment, the VAD module 916 may determine when actual voice activity (or other audio content) is present in the transmission and when silence occurs. In one example, the content of the stream is classified into multiple levels based on the content of the stream. In particular, periods of speech activity may be assigned higher values than periods of silence, and so may be subsequently classified accordingly to a certain level. In an exemplary embodiment, priority assignment module 918 assigns priority to actual content based on decisions made by voice activity module 916. [ The priorities are then assigned to respective radios 620 based on the priority of the content transmitted by the particular radio. For example, the priority assignment module 918 may assign a higher priority to radio transmission voice activity and a lower priority to radio transmission silence.

It can be appreciated that while the voice connections are bidirectional, the nature of human conversations tends to have one speaker at a time. For example, on average, in a voice conversation, each person speaks about 40% of the time. Thus, on average, the radio transmits voice content at approximately 40% of its time and the remaining 60% of the time transmits silence (or comfort noise). Also, as noted above, when multiple radio technologies experience coexistence problems, CxM 640 may be used to select which radio (s) 620 are allowed to activate at any given time have. In one example, CxM 640 considers the priority of each event in each radio 620 before deciding which radio (s) 620 to activate. Thus, if voice activity at the corresponding audio links is used in the decision to perform the process of CxM 640 (e.g., via VAD module 916), then the performance of system 900 may be affected by audio quality Can be improved without affecting.

It can be appreciated that, in general, maintaining a high-quality audio connection may be more important than raw data throughput in some cases, since humans tend to be highly sensitive to changes in audio. Thus, in an aspect, CxM 640 may reduce the number of packets transmitted during silence periods of the audio stream, since approximately 60% of the interactive audio stream is "silent" And can operate to reduce bandwidth.

As an example, when an audio connection from a cellular network continues via Bluetooth, the two radios may cause mutual interference which would benefit from an arbitration scheme for mitigation. Typical intervention schemes operate by considering the entire audio stream (e.g., corresponding to a Bluetooth audio link) as "high priority ". In these typical schemes, the entire audio stream (voice content and silence) is transmitted. This means that during periods of silence, Bluetooth uses all of its bandwidth to transmit its silence. In contrast, in one embodiment, the VAD module 916 and the priority assignment module 918 in the CxM 640 assign the reduced priority to the silent portions (i.e., non-active portions) of the audio stream Cooperation. Thus, during periods of interference, higher throughput is obtained for cellular radio without lowering the audio quality of the Bluetooth link by not transmitting lower priority content (e.g., silence, or other non-essential content) . In an aspect, the VAD module 916 may determine when actual voice content is present.

While the above example is for a specific case of multi-radio management for cellular radio (e.g., LTE radio) and Bluetooth radio, it is to be understood that for any suitable audio application running on any radio or combination of radios, It should be appreciated that techniques may be applied. It should further be appreciated that similar techniques may also be applied to any application in which content is transmitted between two or more resources. For example, the content may include, but is not limited to, video content including streaming video and video conferencing, and audio content including interactive audio, streaming audio, music, and voice content. Content transferred in another aspect is prioritized based on whether the content includes mandatory or non mandatory content. In one example, when audio content is transmitted, periods of silence can be categorized as non-essential content and can be prioritized accordingly.

In an aspect, the VAD auxiliary radio coexistence management system 900 may be applied to various usage scenarios to improve overall system throughput. 10, the various aspects described herein may be utilized to improve the user experience associated with audio access via technology A later on to Technology B, A and B interfere with each other. In one example, Technique A includes cellular technology and Technique B includes any technology for transmitting over the air including, but not limited to, WLAN and Bluetooth technologies. In one example, technique A includes the ability to detect voice activity and technique B does not. In particular, the cellular system 1002 includes a voice activity detection module (not shown) and a priority assignment module (not shown). The components of the cellular system 1002 may include audio content that is transmitted between the cellular system 1002 and the microphone / speakers of the UE 1000 and between the cellular system 1002 and the base station 1008 to determine when the audio content is present. . The voice content may then be transmitted to the Bluetooth system 1004 and the remote Bluetooth component 1006, e.g., a Bluetooth headset. Based on an analysis of the voice activity detection module (not shown), a coexistence manager (not shown) may mediate transmissions from the cellular system 1002 and the Bluetooth system 1004. A coexistence manager (not shown) may reside anywhere in the cellular system 1002 or the UE 1000.

11, various aspects described herein may be used to improve the user experience associated with audio access via technology C, which then moves to technology B, where techniques A and < RTI ID = 0.0 > B interfere with each other. In one exemplary embodiment, technology A is LTE in data communications (i.e., no voice), technology B is Bluetooth, and technology C is a 3G technology that delivers voice content. The 3G system 1110 includes audio content transmitted between the 3G system 1110 and the microphone / speakers of the UE 1100 and between the 3G system 1110 and the 3G base station 1112 to determine when voice content is present Review. The voice content may then be transmitted to the Bluetooth system 1104 and the remote Bluetooth component 1106, e.g., a Bluetooth headset. Based on analysis of voice activity, a detection module (not shown), coexistence manager (not shown) may mediate transmissions from LTE system 1102 and Bluetooth system 1104. A coexistence manager (not shown) may reside within the 3G cellular system 1002 or anywhere within the UE 1100.

12 is a flow diagram of a method 1200 for prioritizing resources in a wireless communication system. At block 1202, a connection using the first resource and a content stream corresponding to the connection are identified. The first resource conflicts with the second resource. Next, at block 1204, the content of the stream is sorted into multiple levels based on the value of the content. At block 1206, the priority is assigned to the first and second resources based on the level of the content of the resources.

In one configuration, the UE 250 for wireless communication includes identification means, classification means, and priority assignment means. In an aspect, the identification means described above may be within the radios 620a-n of Fig. 6 configured to perform the functions cited by the means described above. In another aspect, the means described above may be a module or any device configured to perform the functions cited by the means described above. In an aspect, the classification means described above may be a CxM, a digital processor 630 and / or a controller processor 650 in a radio 620a-n configured to perform the functions cited by the means described above. In another aspect, the means described above may be a module or any device configured to perform the functions cited by the means described above. In an aspect, the above-described priority allocation means includes a CxM 640, a digital processor 630 and / or a controller processor 650 in a radio 620a-n configured to perform the functions cited by the above- Lt; / RTI > In another aspect, the means described above may be a module or any device configured to perform the functions cited by the means described above.

Various aspects are described herein in connection with a wireless terminal and / or base station. A wireless terminal may refer to a device that provides a voice and / or data connection to a user. The wireless terminal may be connected to a computing device, such as a laptop computer or a desktop computer, or may be a self storage device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA). A wireless terminal may also be referred to as a system, a subscriber unit, a subscriber station, a mobile station, a mobile, a remote station, an access point, a remote terminal, an access terminal, a user terminal, a user agent, a user device or a user equipment (UE). A wireless terminal may be a mobile terminal, a wireless device, a cellular telephone, a PCS telephone, a cordless telephone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) telephone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA) Or other processing device connected to the wireless modem. A base station (e.g., an access point or node B) may refer to a device in an access network that communicates over a wireless interface with wireless terminals, via one or more sectors. The base station may operate as a router between the remainder of the access network and the wireless terminal by converting the received wireless-interface frames into IP packets, and the access network may include an Internet Protocol (IP) network. The base station also coordinates the management of attributes for the air interface.

It is understood that the particular order or hierarchy of steps in the disclosed processes is an example of exemplary schemes. It is understood that, based on design preferences, the particular order or hierarchy of steps in the processes may be rearranged while maintaining the scope of the present disclosure. Subsequent Method Claims suggest elements of the various steps in a sample order and are not meant to be limited to the particular order or hierarchy presented.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may include voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, Fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

Those skilled in the art will further appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or combinations of both . To clearly illustrate the interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described generally in their functional aspects. Whether such functionality is implemented in hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array Other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination of those designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but, in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration .

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. The software module may reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, portable disk, CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. Alternatively, the storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in the user terminal. Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

The previous description of the disclosed aspects is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims (22)

CLAIMS 1. A method for wireless communication,
Identifying an interference between a first content stream received at a first connection of a user equipment (UE) using a first radio access technology and a second content stream transmitted at a second connection of the UE using a second radio access technology Wherein the second content stream comprises content having voice activity periods and non-voice activity periods;
Assigning a first value to the voice activity periods and a second value to the non-voice activity periods;
Assigning a priority to the content based on the assigned values, the first value having a first priority greater than a second priority;
Determining whether a radio link failure (RLF) exists as a result of the interference between the first content stream and the second content stream; And
And sending a message to the base station indicating the radio link failure as a result of interference between the first radio access technology and the second radio access technology. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the content comprises at least one of interactive audio, streaming audio, video and video conferencing. delete The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising: negotiating resources between the first connection and the second connection according to the priority. The method according to claim 1,
Further comprising: mediating resources between the first connection, the second connection, and the at least one additional connection in accordance with their respective priorities. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the identifying further comprises identifying a migration from the first connection to the second connection. The method according to claim 1,
And the second connection is a Bluetooth audio link. A system for wireless communication,
Identifying interference between a first content stream received at a first connection of a user equipment (UE) using a first radio access technology and a second content stream transmitted at a second connection of the UE using a second radio access technology The second content stream including content having voice activity periods and non-voice activity periods;
Means for assigning a first value to the voice activity periods and a second value to the non-voice activity periods;
Means for assigning a priority to the content based on assigned values, the first value having a first priority greater than a second priority;
Means for determining whether a radio link failure (RLF) is present as a result of the interference between the first content stream and the second content stream; And
And means for transmitting to the base station a message indicating the radio link failure as a result of interference between the first radio access technology and the second radio access technology. 9. The method of claim 8,
Wherein the content comprises at least one of interactive audio, streaming audio, video and video conferencing. delete 9. The method of claim 8,
And means for arbitrating resources between the first connection and the second connection in accordance with the priority. 9. The method of claim 8,
Further comprising means for arbitrating resources between the first connection, the second connection, and the at least one additional connection in accordance with their respective priorities. A computer-readable medium having recorded thereon program code for wireless communications in a wireless network,
The program code comprising:
Identifying interference between a first content stream received at a first connection of a user equipment (UE) using a first radio access technology and a second content stream transmitted at a second connection of the UE using a second radio access technology Wherein the second content stream comprises content having voice activity periods and non-voice activity periods;
Program code for assigning a first value to the voice activity periods and a second value for the non-voice activity periods;
Program code for assigning a priority to the content based on assigned values, the first value having a first priority greater than a second priority;
Program code for determining whether a radio link failure (RLF) exists as a result of the interference between the first content stream and the second content stream; And
And program code for transmitting to the base station a message indicating the radio link failure as a result of interference between the first radio access technology and the second radio access technology, media. 14. The method of claim 13,
Wherein the content comprises at least one of interactive audio, streaming audio, video and video conferencing. delete 14. The method of claim 13,
And program code for arbitrating resources between the first connection and the second connection in accordance with the priority. 14. The method of claim 13,
And program code for arbitrating resources between the first connection, the second connection, and the at least one additional connection in accordance with their respective priorities. An apparatus for wireless communication,
Memory; And
And at least one processor coupled to the memory,
Wherein the at least one processor comprises:
To identify interference between a first content stream received at a first connection of a user equipment (UE) using a first radio access technology and a second content stream transmitted at a second connection of the UE using a second radio access technology The second content stream comprises content having voice activity periods and non-voice activity periods;
Assigning a first value to the voice activity periods and a second value to the non-voice activity periods;
Assigning a priority to the content based on the assigned values, the first value having a first priority greater than a second priority;
To determine whether a radio link failure (RLF) is present as a result of the interference between the first content stream and the second content stream; And
And send a message to the base station indicating the radio link failure as a result of interference between the first radio access technology and the second radio access technology. 19. The method of claim 18,
Wherein the content comprises at least one of interactive audio, streaming audio, video and video conferencing. delete 19. The method of claim 18,
Wherein the processor is further configured to arbitrate resources of the first connection and the second connection device according to the priority. 19. The method of claim 18,
Wherein the processor is further configured to arbitrate resources between the first connection, the second connection, and the at least one additional connection in accordance with respective priorities.

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